Knoc-turn'al - "Knoc's Landin"

[Murrow]

ThaFormula.com - Were the Dre tracks on your album done by Mel-Man and Dre or just Dre?  
Knoc - Dr. Dre and Scott Storch did one, Dre did the other one and another one Mel did by him. I got some production by Timbaland on the album, Fred Wreck, and me and L.A. Confidential Productions.

ThaFormula.com - What made you decide to hook up with Timberland?

Knoc - He's dope. He got the second most sold records producer wise besides Dr. Dre so you tell me what's wrong with that. I don't hate, I just say “hey records sold, is records sold.”

ThaFormula.com - Did you choose to go with Timbaland because of the records sold?

Knoc - I choose to go with him because he's dope. I told you that.

ThaFormula.com - Why do you think the Knocturnal album is dropping now, but the Hittman is not?

Knoc - You have to ask Aftermath that. That's none of my business. I'm signed to L.A. Confidential.

ThaFormula.com - Why do you think you have received so much love from Dre?

Knoc - Oh man, I have no idea man. When I go in there and he needs me to do something for him, I just try to do my job and do it the best I can.

ThaFormula.com - It's just that it's rare for Dre to back somebody up so much, especially because you’re not even on Aftermath?

Knoc - That's true. I guess he appreciates my talent. I appreciate him giving me that type of love and doing that for me.

ThaFormula.com - So how exactly is it set up between you and Elektra?

Knoc - It's 50/50. It's a real label deal. I'm signed to L.A. Confidential and distributed by Elektra.

ThaFormula.com - Did Elektra approach you to try and sign you as one of their artists first?

Knoc - Nah, never. They went through us straight as a label.

ThaFormula.com - Do you think that what you have done is the future of what artists will be doing?

Knoc - No I don't. I think that that's a rarity. It's not easy man. It's a lot of business involved, not just talent. Everybody can't be a boss.

ThaFormula.com - Now what about your budget? Is it smaller when you’re distributed by a major instead of actually being signed?

Knoc - Of course not. It's bigger.

ThaFormula.com - So what exactly does L.A. Confidential do?

Knoc - Come up with all the music. Get all the production out the way as far as we do the footwork on the album on what needs to be done. Markets and gets us around and stuff like that to different retails, promoters and radio stations to get it out.

ThaFormula.com - How has everything changed since "Bad Intentions" dropped?

Knoc - Man, let me tell you like this. I went to 40 something states in six weeks and I been on 30 something planes.

ThaFormula.com - Who pays for all those expenses?

Knoc - Both. Like I told you, it's a 50/50 split all the way around.

ThaFormula.com - How was it for you recording that video for Knoc?.

Knoc - It was tedious, but you know I rather be tired then bored. It was a real hard process.

ThaFormula.com - Were you happy with the results of that video?

Knoc - Of course because it looked real and convincing instead of looking like it's a bunch of computer generated shit and it's something that is kind of hard for you to catch at first until you actually pay attention to the video. It looks natural.

ThaFormula.com - Mostly everybody follows whatever is hot at the moment. Your album was surprising to me because it was nothing like the single.

Knoc - Yeah, but you know that's all apart of me trying to be true to myself. I can't rap like nobody from the East Coast because that ain't me. I didn't come from there and I'm not trying to be accepted. I'm trying to be me and see that all comes with being signed to L.A. Confidential. My boss gave me total creative control. He just tried to come in sometimes to tell me and find ways to do it better. He didn't discourage me, he just let me keep making music.

ThaFormula.com - How many tracks did you record for this album?

Knoc - A little over 300 in 3 years. I narrowed it down to like 14.

ThaFormula.com - Yeah, because I remember seeing poster for your album about a year and a half ago up in Compton and Long Beach. What are the plans for the 280 tracks that didn't make the album?

Knoc - Man, they probably will just sit there. It's on to a new day man. Those 300 tracks are what it took for me to make my album. It's out with the old and in with the new.

ThaFormula.com - Who did you have doing production on those other tracks that didn't make the cut?

Knoc – A lot of people man. Battlecat, Budda, Jazzy Pha, me, L.A. Confidential. I got songs with Sticky Fingaz, Ms. Roc, and a lot of songs with other people that I'm not even using, and it's not because it wasn't dope, I just was looking for a complete vibe on my album.

ThaFormula.com - Do you plan on releasing those at any time?

Knoc - Nah, like I said out with the old and in with the new. I'm just gonna move forward and make new songs. Dr. Dre made a hundred and something songs for the chronic 2001 album. You thinkin’ he is going to release the ones he didn't use? Nope! He don't. It's like you gotta keep on movin’ forward man. If you start doing that, you will start getting lazy. You don't wanna get lazy because then you will start slippin’ and thinkin’ everything that you’re doing is good.

ThaFormula.com - So you don't plan on doing anything with those tracks at all?

Knoc - No, I really don't. Unless somebody comes in and want a mixtape, but I'm not trying to put it on no album or nothin’ like that.

ThaFormula.com - How has the response been in the East Coast?

Knoc - The East Coast response has been wonderful. Actually it picked up a lot faster then I thought it would.

[Murrow]

ThaFormula.com - Do you think adding Missy to the track really made a difference?

Knoc - I don't know because you know Missy is actually from Virginia. I don't know whether it did or not. I just know that she is considered to be the queen of the East Coast so you actually might have a point, but all I know is missy approached me and wanted to do a song with me and I had already done the 3 verses to that song "The Knoc", but it wasn't even called "The Knoc" then, it was called something else. She wanted to do some work with me and every time I tried to do a hook for that song it seemed like the verses were overpowering the, so I was like "OK well let me send it to Missy to see if she likes the song and see if she can do a hook for me." When I sent it to her, she was like "Oh hell yeah, I'll do that shit" and then when she sent it back I listened to it. I was like "ooh, that's great."

ThaFormula.com - Now a lot of people diss Missy. What do you think about that?

Knoc - She's a genius man. She's actually a genius. You got to understand she has written for a lot of people like 702, Aaliyah, and a lot of other people.

ThaFormula.com - Why do you think she get's dissed alot?

Knoc - Jealousy and you know people look at beauty for you know skin deep and Missy is a very beautiful person on the inside and outside and she is very humble. She's a loving person and people that don't know her tend to be envious of her or whatever, and that's all haterism and jealousy. But if you get to know her as a person, you will know that she's the sweetest person in the world.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think are the chances of another Master P coming up, as far as building what he has built independently in the year 2002?

Knoc - It would be hard, but it can happen and that's what we’re trying to do in this situation. We got Time Bomb from the Chronic 2001 who's my label mate. We got Slip Capone from the “Murder Was the Case” soundtrack, that's also my label mate. We got 4 producers and 2 DJ's. We trying to make a situation like that. We got a group called L.A. Confidential that's gonna come out soon, but it's a slower process these days then it is with Master P because people slow you down. Companies and major corporations, they’re not gonna let you do it like that no more because for one, the economy, and two, they’re not trying to let certain people get full blown like that.

ThaFormula.com - Is there a certain sales number that you have to meet in order to make everybody happy?

Knoc - There's a certain number that I have to meet in order to make me happy and I'm trying to go 5 or 6 times platinum because I gave my all on my music, and I feel like with the support that I have I feel like first of all I got a lot of love at home. I got a lot of love on the East Coast, down South and I feel like my album should do real well. I feel like I got support from the nation, support from the streets, I got support from the ghetto and people who made it out of the ghetto and still support the ghetto. I got support from the urban society and different networks of societies that I never expected like the Latino community and stuff like that. It makes you feel a little better too because when I come home and I do concerts, I ain't gotta worry about getting sweated or somebody wanting to shoot me because you getting love instead of people just saying, "Ahh fuck you!" I just want people to have fun and realize that I am from the West Coast and this is the way we do it out here on the West Coast, and it ain't always got to be we out here bangin’, drinkin’ and smokin’. You can drink and smoke and have a good time. People do it everyday when they got to parties, birthday parties, house parties, clubs, drink and smoke weed in the club and have fun and that's what my album is about.

ThaFormula.com - Do you think the separation of the underground hip-hop and commercial hip-hop will ever end, and we can finally just call it bad hip-hop or good hip-hop?

Knoc - Well until DJ's start playing more underground hip-hop and not worrying about what politics is, it's gonna always be like that.

ThaFormula.com - How many tracks from your album did you record during the time you were on the Chronic 2001 album?

Knoc - Probably about 40 to 50. I can record about 2 or 3 songs in a day if I already got a beat to them and all that stuff.

ThaFormula.com - Have you written for a lot of people in the industry?

Knoc - Yeah, like you know Warren G, Dr. Dre, and few other people. I'm about to do some stuff for Angie Martinez and different people.

ThaFormula.com - Now you worked with most of the heavy hitters from the West, but I was wondering how come you haven't hooked up with Quik?

Knoc - Oh, because he was busy doing some stuff and he went through that thing with Mausberg so he was trying to chill for a minute and get his head back together, but I would love to work with Quik. Quik is my dog. I have et him on a numerous occasions and he ain't never showed me nothin’ but love, so it's nothing personal you know what I mean. He just had his own agenda he had going on right then and I was just trying to let him separate the things that he was going through, because it's a great loss to lose an MC that you put your all into. It's fucked up! And to know that he got killed by his own people is even worse. I'm gonna work with him in the future. Right now I just got to get off of this promo tour.

ThaFormula.com - How did the bad intentions track come about?

Knoc - We was in the studio drinking, smoking some weed and this dude by the name of Mahogany had brought that beat in and Dre heard it and was like, "you know what Knoc? I want you to do this hook for me and we gonna use this one for "The Wash" soundtrack. So we worked on it for you know a day or two, and in that time Warren G came through and I wrote a single for him on his album and Nate Dogg came through and we did a song with him for his album and them we finished making that song and put it together. Dre brought in flute players and other things and formatted the whole song, and it's took off from there. People just started loving it and they was like "that needs to be the first single."


ThaFormula.com - So it wasn't planned for you to be on the wash soundtrack?

Knoc - No, it was planned for me to be on there, it just wasn't planned for me to have the first single. It was planned for Dre & Snoop to have the first single.

ThaFormula.com - Have the Slip Capone and Time Bomb albums been completed?

Knoc - They’re working on them right now.

ThaFormula.com - What are you guys looking for production wise for those albums?

Knoc - We got different stuff coming out with Rockwilder, Rick Rock, Bink, Battlecat, Dre and Mel Man. We also planning on getting a couple of songs from Timbaland, but we gonna do a lot of stuff ourselves. We just gonna get those classic fillers that we need.

ThaFormula.com - Are you gonna be on the "Detox" album?

Knoc - Yeah, well we worked on some stuff and I already know a couple of things that I’m gonna be on, but we just gonna focus on what's going on now ‘till we start making the Detox album because he's really gonna get serious about it in June, and I’m gonna start my second album in June. You gotta keep working man. You can't win by staying asleep.

ThaFormula.com - What are your thoughts on the people that say Dre is a biter, ghost producer, etc.?

Knoc - Well, he's an orchestrator. Orchestrators are better than producers. Orchestrators put together everything and put things in the right room so they can orchestrate music. It's like a symphony orchestrator. If he wasn't up there directing every piece to that puzzle, then those hundred people in that symphony would not run smoothly. They would not know when to play their parts and everybody would try to overpower somebody else. He's the puzzle put together man. He can have a whole bunch of pieces in a box and put the puzzle together real quick and make a song. He's a orchestrator. He makes all the sounds and pieces of the puzzle fit accurately instead of something being forced to fit. He don't just take something and say this sounds cool. He takes it and says how can I make this better.

ThaFormula.com - Do you have any tours planned?

Knoc - We been going on tour already. We got a couple of more tours going on, but then I'm gonna go on tour with Truth Hurts and Shaunta from Aftermath.

[HairWuzEre]

e

he got bootlegged badly, everyone had his fuckin album like february time when it was coming out in april!! though the only song i heard so far is nite and day n knock

How did his album get bootlegged? Or, for that matter, how does ANYONE's albums get bootlegged? Do people sneak advanced copies for their kids or something, and then their kids put them on the internet, or what?

[Tito]

Myrealname with his 436th alias?
Clown

You're wrong fool s.o.a.b.
440th!

[Jome]

You're wrong fool s.o.a.b.
440th!

Yea, I'm the fool  

[gFuNkA]

actually i received new knoc tracks. Damn, these new (or older) tracks are way much better than the tracks of the advance. the track "LA" with slip capone, time bomb prod. by Battlecat is a heater. any1 heard these other tracks beside the advance too?

[gFuNkA]

...also a dpg remix of "Lets All Roll" with Roscoe, Kurupt, Slip Capone

[closetothalimit]

hey gfunka, can u hook use up with those tracks?

[gFuNkA]

hey gfunka, can u hook use up with those tracks?

i have upped the track "L.A."...check it.

[Jome]

Sad bump  

[West Coast Veteran]

Damn I gave up on this album dropping. It just keeps gettin' pushed back further and further. He been droppin' hot songs though every month. "Your Only Son" is tight. I love the concept. Knoc is real original with his flow and subject matter. I'm glad he's discussing topics that have never been discussed before and keeping his shit original. It makes the music much more enjoyable. Waiting for the EP and the new version of Knoc's Landing.

[Lil Jay]

This here is the new cover for the album, basically the same as the old one, except for the title........

[Murrow]

This shit gonna get dropped on Baby Ree?

[CharlieBrown]

Baby Ree's a management company

[Murrow]

This is shot.